SP’s Raees Shaikh wins big from Bhiwandi East, bridging gaps in Maharashtra’s polarised politics

This overwhelming triumph is peculiarly notable fixed the tense and divisive quality of the run starring up to the Maharashtra Assembly elections, marked by some a polarised governmental situation and interior absorption wrong his ain party. Despite facing antagonism from his enactment chief, Abu Asim Azmi, and enduring a run that emphasised spiritual divides, Shaikh’s occurrence is simply a testament to governmental strategy.

Shaikh, the erstwhile PR professional-turned-politician, distanced himself from the Hindu-Muslim binary and avoided overt alliances with clerics. “Apart from his enactment with the Muslim community, Raees Bhai made it a constituent to enactment successful Hindu festivals similar Ganeshotsav and Navratri, showing that his absorption was connected each sections of society. He has successfully positioned himself arsenic a person for the masses, and that attack has paid off,” said a governmental idiosyncratic adjacent to Shaikh.

This triumph besides marks Shaikh’s instrumentality to the Maharashtra Assembly arsenic a two-time MLA, pursuing his earlier occurrence successful 2019, aft being shifted to Bhiwandi East by his enactment contempt primitively being groomed for a Byculla seat. Bhiwandi East, a constituency of important concern importance, is location to 10 lakh powerfulness looms, which process astir a 3rd of India’s cloth production. The portion besides boasts the largest warehousing assemblage successful Asia, dealing successful everything from achromatic goods to e-commerce products.

Shaikh’s absorption connected infrastructure betterment successful the country has earned him wide support. However, his governmental travel has been thing but smooth. A erstwhile corporator from Mumbai’s Govandi — 1 of the city’s astir underdeveloped areas — Shaikh’s emergence done the ranks of the Samajwadi Party was swift. After a palmy word successful the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), helium was thrust into the spotlight owed to his ties with Abu Asim Azmi, becoming a radical person and a subordinate of the BMC Standing Committee.

Despite his rising profile, Shaikh’s narration with Azmi soured up of the 2024 elections, culminating successful his resignation from the Samajwadi Party six months earlier the polls. Though a reconciliation was aboriginal brokered, the interior enactment rift raised doubts astir his quality to replicate his erstwhile successes.

However, Shaikh defied the odds, leveraging his extended societal media beingness and strategical campaigning to look victorious. In his triumph speech, Shaikh emphasised that his occurrence was a triumph for improvement implicit communal politics. “This triumph signifies that the authorities of Hindu-Muslim part has ended, astatine slightest successful Bhiwandi. The predetermination present was astir the future—education, healthcare, and infrastructure. The radical voted for a amended time for their children, and I americium committed to delivering that successful the adjacent 5 years,” Shaikh said.

Of the 10 Muslim MLAs elected successful 2024, 5 won by margins of little than 3,400 votes. Another standout performer was Congress’s Amin Patel, who secured a 34,000-vote triumph successful his Mumbadevi seat, marking his 4th word successful the Maharashtra Assembly.